ThucLam is Better than Nam

for spring break my mother sent me off to stay with my nana and pappy for 5 days. i don’t mind it as much as tq does so it’s more than safe to say i thoroughly enjoyed myself more than she did. they took me out to caddy for my nana while they golfed with friends. i kinda liked it, surprisingly enough. the grass is nice and the weather was perfect. throughout the stay i played with zoe for a few minutes and i painted a LOT. this is a pretty normal thing; for my nana to buy tq and i paint by number sets and we finish them during our stay. i like the paint by numbers a lot and i hang them up in my room when i finish them. we also went to the butterfly museum one day, which was really cool. when nana had asked tq if she wanted to go, she said no cause tq HATES bugs so nana took me instead. very fun i like bugs very much. there was also this st patricks day parade which was very very thrilling(as thrilling as it gets around millions of old people).

For winter break, my family dedicated a lot of money towards a 10 day Vietnam trip. Everyone was pretty excited for it, considering that most of my family hadn’t been back to Vietnam in years.

TD, TQ and my dad went a few days before my mom and I left since I had a few finals I needed to take before being able to go on break. It was a quick and seamless flight to LA, and then to Taiwan, and then to Saigon. I mostly slept on the way there. Because of time zones, we got there at 10am and my body wasn’t very accustomed to all the different time zones we had recently been in. The day we arrived my mom and I immediately met up with her cousins and went out for food. Very good food. I love Vietnam. After that we walked around the streets of our hotel for a while just so my mom and I could watch around. I’m not too sure what else we did that day, let me think. I do not remember.

That night, we met up with my dad and my sisters at the hotel and we settled in. There was a MiniStop(that corner store you see in the kdramas omg)underneath our building so we frequently bought snacks from there throughout the trip. The hotel itself was very nice, spacious and pretty clean, also a really great view from all the rooms.

Yknow this trip was about 3 months ago and I probably should’ve written this blog sooner so that my memories would be somewhat fresh, but that’s nearly impossible now because I’m #drawingablank on what we did in chronological order, so I’m just gonna go off the rails from here.

We met up with Di Mi and Di Ti quite a few times, and their kids. Very cute. Di Mi has her 2 daughters; Kiwi and Miki, and Di Ti has her 3 kids; Ken, Tiger, and Ruby. I actually have no idea what their real names are because Vietnamese names are a little confusing to me because why does one person have so many different names they go by? Anyways, we also met up with Angel’s sisters, Nghi and Diep, a lot too. One day, they took my sisters and I out for the day around the city. We went to the mall and a few shopping centers, bingsu, and this cute little DIY activity shop. One night they also took us and Kiwi and Miki to a dog/cat cafe which was the greatest thing ever. I am severely allergic to dogs and I was, in fact, a sneezing mess and by the we got home and I had to take 2 very aggressive showers one after the other to make it stop. But it was so worth it. The cats were very cute and there were just so many dogs. It was also pretty cool to hang out with family members that I barely ever saw. I got along with Nghi pretty well, as usual, it was a little awkward at first but when we had to sit next to each other in a car it all came back naturally.

It’s also pretty cool to see my mom back in her home country. She seems very comfortable and at peace there. It kinda dawned on me that these people were her cousins, in the same way that Nhi or Khang and Nam are my cousins. Except the difference is that my mom lives across the ocean from them, and I see my family relatively pretty often. My mom’s family is pretty lively and funny, I can tell how close she is with them despite being so physically far.

At the start of this semester, my English teacher had us write a short essay on an impactful moment in our lives that made us think differently about our lives. I wrote it about this trip. It’s not my first time in Vietnam but I think I will always remember it more because of how much older I am. In that short essay, I wrote about how I realized how much my mom had left behind when she moved to America. Driving through streets and seeing my mom point out where she had gone to school, the swimming pool she went to, her old house, I remembered how my mom had a life before I was born. In fact, it was kind of an epiphany. My mom has also been 15 years old, just like me, and she went to high school, and she went out with her friends too. I guess what I’m trying to say here is that I understood how much of a role she had in my life, despite only knowing me for less than half her life. Here I was, in a foreign country where I had distant roots in, and my mom had just melted into the scenery. All the family members I met seemed like a tiny part of my mom’s personality, and I cannot imagine how she has to live so far from them. In the 10 days we were in Vietnam, I saw my mom come to life around her family, her childhood.

Yeah it was a pretty cool trip.

Around the end of January, leading into February, I went to Orlando with DECA for a Sports Entertainment and Marketing Conference. It was interesting and very informative. Of course, we also got to go to Universal and Magic Kingdom.

It was amazing. We got there at like 6pm and settled into the hotel rooms pretty quickly. We didn’t have anything we had to do that night so the advisors let us do whatever we wanted until curfew. The rooms were separated by gender and there were 4 people to a room. My room had a connecting door to the other hotel room so it basically just the 8 of us moving through the 2 rooms constantly. I went on a night walk around the hotel with my roommate Joyce and we also walked past the bajillion pools, where we saw a bunch of the boys swimming.  And then we had to be in our designated rooms at 11pm, so all 8 of us just watched a movie until we all fell asleep.

My first official day of the trip started very tardily. We had to be at the conference at 8am so the call time was 7:30am. Nobody was able to wake me up. I’m a pretty deep sleeper. I woke up at 7:20am, which is totally fine because I can get ready in under 5 minutes. I packed these Doc Marten-ish shoes, a short sleeved black turtleneck, and plaid dress pants. I was gonna bring a blazer but I forgot. The conference itself took like 3 hours and a lot of us fell asleep during it. It was just a bunch of different people from the marketing/PR/etc. teams of Universal talking about their job and how they got there/what their job basically is. But after the conference, we went back to the hotels to change in like 15 minutes, and then we were off to the park!

I’ve never been to Universal but a lot of my friends had been(from the  previous DECA trips) so we were just getting through all the good rides pretty fast. I love rollercoasters. Although I do tend to freak out a bit when we’re in line, I will never skip a ride. We went on The Hulk rollercoaster first which was a great start to the day. We also did the Spiderman 3D ride, and then we went to Hogsmeade. OMG I loved Hogsmeade, I’m not the biggest Harry Potter fan, but I would say I’m pretty into it. Hogsmeade was so visually pleasing and the butter beer tasted amazing. We went on Hagrid’s ride, which was probably my favorite, and we also went on another 3D Hogwarts ride.

If you don’t know what the Velocicoaster is, it’s basically the newest Universal ride, Jurassic Park themed, and very very very scary. It goes like 155 feet high and  goes 70 mph. It also loops a bunch and there’s corkscrews and the launching thingy. Basically we all wanted to go on this ride really bad. So we’re waiting in line, there’s like 9 of us, and our friend Kathrine is also with us, but she has told us over and over again that she will NOT be riding the Velocicoaster. Huge bummer, Kathrine is a party pooper. But anyways, we’re waiting in this line and I am, as usual, freaking out. I was freaking out a lot more than usual tbh, but that was probably because in the line there was a section where the rollercoaster actually zooms past and I was just staring at that the whole time. Eventually, we get near the checkpoint, where we drop off our stuff, and Kathrine has been watching me freak out this whole time so she goes “Okay guys, I’ll go on it.” And we all freaked out and started celebrating and we asked her why she changed her mind so suddenly and she says, “Well Thuc seems more scared than I am, and if she can do it, so can I.” I dunno how to feel about that statement but I’m still very glad she came along. On the coaster itself, Kathrine and I sat together(lol) and our friend Ally, who has been telling us that the coaster isn’t actually that bad and she loves it, sits in the row in front of us, the very front row. Right before the coaster does the super scary launch thingy with the countdown, Ally turns around to look at Kathrine and I, and she goes, “This is actually the scariest ride I’ve ever been on, and I hate it.” RIGHT AFTER SHE SAYS THAT THE COASTER TAKES OFF. At this point there is so much wind in my face and adrenaline rushing through my body I cannot make out coherent thoughts, except for the fact that the view from the top of tracks is beautiful, and absolutely gut-wrenching when we drop so fast and twist and turn, and I made sure to scream out many curses towards Ally and her entire bloodline for the next 5 generations. After we got off my hands were literally shaking I kid you not. This strengthened Kathrine and I’s relationship. Also, after you go on a rollercoaster and scream a bunch, your mouth turns out very dry, I realized.

After that crazy experience, we went on our last ride of the day, a water one. While we were walking up through the empty lines, we asked a worker if you got absolutely drenched on this ride, and he just nodded at us. So, I sat at the very back(it was sort of a log ride), to ensure I didn’t get too wet. WRONG! I got soaked, from head to toe. Mind you, it’s the end of January, and about 8pm, so you can imagine I was freezing my butt off. But then I decided to run back to the rendezvous point and boom, I was basically completely dry.

Despite that being our last ride, the night was far from over. DECA would be paying for our dinner at Universal’s Chocolate Factory. OMG it was the best dinner I have ever had. We all got our entrees and sundaes and tons of cheesy fries. There were about 24 of us, so I can imagine what the check looked like. And then afterwards, while we were leaving, I noticed Ally had stayed back with Kharlo and he looked like he was whispering something at her so I watched the whole scene go down. I couldn’t hear what they were saying but Ally was shaking her head and giggling and Kharlo looked like he was about to deal drugs. To my surprise, Ally gives in to whatever Kharlo was saying and she SWIPES THE GIANT BOTTLE OF TOBASCO OFF THE TABLE AND SHOVES IT IN HER BAG. Then, she turned to see me standing there, trying not to pee my pants from laughing. Walking back to the buses was the funniest thing ever because we were all just trying to not look suspicious in front of the advisors while Ally walked around looking like a narc.

When we got back to the hotel everyone was exhausted. We all showered and got changed and shared our silly little stories of the day. Around 12:30am everyone was knocked the freak out.

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I’m a sophomore in high school now. It’s been pretty fun. I like high school.

I think a big reason why people hate on it is because of their mindset. I think high school is fun, therefore it is. It is also, simultaneously, hell. Classes are awful and boring and far too demanding, people are snobby and stuck up gangsters, and for some reason everything is a competition(it’s a competition that I’M winning). However, despite the very convincing list of reason I have previously stated, high school is also very awesome. I have loads of friends, and I know that may sound obnoxious, but yknow what’s even more obnoxious? Saying that you have no friends. But I won’t be saying that, because it’s not true! I like getting to know people and waving to people in the hallways. I like passing my classes and hanging out with my friends at lunch or after school. I like joining clubs as well.

I am currently taking a class called Production Design 2. Obviously, I’ve already taken Production Design1, hence the second course. It’s basically a class where you help around in the theatre department. VERY fun. My school’s theatre program is the best in the district and we take things very seriously. I designed the set for our fall play this semester and it’s fun! Measuring, and painting, and cutting wood, sewing dresses, fixing lights, I think it’s all very enjoyable. It’s a space where I am very comfortable and where I spend 1-2 hours a day in. I wanna go into engineering so the whole “designing the set for the play” really builds into that.

Production Design isn’t the Drama Club, I am not in Drama Club. Technically, everything that I’ve done for the play is just for my grade in the class. I am in a club though. Distributive Education Clubs of America, or for short, DECA. It’s basically a business management club. DECA is a huge club at my school and we get a lot of funding. There’s a student-run store where you can buy school merch and loads of snacks. I spend all of my lunches in there at the register, serving people and getting money for the school. DECA also gets tons of chances for community service, so I jump at those opportunities. We also compete with other school’s DECA programs. Because it’s a business management club, we compete in different kinds of tests. There’s written tests, about the entire premise of owning/starting a business, and there’s roleplays. In roleplays, you sit in front of a judge and they give you a prompt, eg; “You are explaining to a customer and a colleague why your fast food chain has increased prices for soft drinks after switching to environment-friendly cups and straws.”. And then you would respond with something like “We just recently invested in buying paper cups and straws to be more eco-friendly, however we need to make sure we make profit on that after buying such a large stock or the eco-friendly material…” so on and so forth.

Those competitions get really big and last year, we had two students win Nationals. Because of these large scale competitions, the state competition is in Tempe somewhere, where we would have to spend the night. And Nationals is in Orlando, where DECA gets DisneyWorld rented out only for DECA members and we get to have fun at the park. Only 24 members are allowed on the DisneyWorld trip. It’s a 5 day trip from Wednesday to Sunday, somewhere in February. My teacher has invited me to go. I have until December 1st to tell my mom I got invited(out of 80 members, remember that mom), and to ask her for permission to go on this trip. It’s a long shot. A really long shot. But never have I ever spent a night without family supervision in the past 15 years, and personally, I think I can survive 5 days without it. And, it’s a huge opportunity. I get to go to a national competition, AND compete against people all over the country. It would look amazing on resumes. Plus, it’s a DisneyWorld trip with my friends. I don’t think I’m asking for too much. Well, I am asking for a bit. It’s a $200 fee but I don’t think I have ever asked my mom for anything near that scale. I hope she says yes. She doesn’t have to do anything for my birthday, or get me anything for Christmas for the next 10 years, I just want to go on this trip.

Anyways, like I said, high school is tons of fun. However, I do despise the fact that I have to plan out the next bajillion years of my future in the next two weeks. It’s pretty scary.

Tonight is homecoming. I read Nam’s blog about his homecoming and I think it was very funny. I’m going with 3 other friends and they’re all coming over around 4 to hang out and get ready. I am very excited. To me, this is a huge thing in girlhood, and it’ll be really fun. I enjoy getting out there and doing stuff with people I love. Example; last night I went to the homecoming football game with said friends. We screamed, cheered, threw questionable substances in the air, and I received a bracelet from a BOY. It was, in fact, very fun. Doing things in general with tons of other people, very fun. I’ve said the word “fun” so many times now. But it’s a very good word to describe everything I’m talking about. Football games are fun. Homecoming will be fun. High school is fun. Having friends is very fun. Doing things with friends is very fun.

So, I am enjoying high school. I have two and a half years left and I’m very excited.

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hôm nay con dậy hơi trễ. Nhưng mà bà ngoại chưa có làm đồ ăn xong cho nên con phải chở chút xíu trước khi ăn. hôm nay mẹ và bà ngoại làm cá chiên cho nên ai cũng thích. rồi xong ăn thì con coi phim với Angel. tập xong tới nam giờ thì mình đi ra ngoài hồ bơi. me và ba cũng ra bởi luôn. Rồi xong mình đi lên ăn trứng nhưng mà con và TQ không có ăn.

Liên got married two days ago and the whole family attended. Pretty much everyone went. We all got ready and then piled in the cars to take an hour trip to the venue. The venue was VERY fancy. To me at least. The actual ceremony was pretty fast and kinda rushed cause it was about to rain. The beginning of cocktail hour was just us being confused on where to go and when to take pictures. But eventually we took the pictures and then ate a little bit. Food was great but my feet hurt so bad that it didn’t really matter. Then we went into the dinner area with a very nice view. I finally got to sit down and kinda just eat and talk to Nam and Bien. The food was very good and then about an hour before we left ThucDan went onto the dance floor to dance and she dragged Khang with her too. A little while later I went on there too and I got Y Vien to come as well. It was fun and I would 100% so it again except bring an extra pair of shoes.

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last thursday i had my last day of school and then almost immediately had to go camping with thucquyen. my dad dropped us off at my grandma’s house and we waited for pappy to come pick us up. when he did, thucquyen and i immediately fell asleep. anytime i take a car ride longer than 20 minutes i fall asleep pretty easily. we got to the campgrounds, which is the same one we’ve been going to for the past 3(?) years. nana and the dogs were waiting for us and we quickly put our stuff away and went on a walk for the dogs. it was all very nice and we had casserole for dinner. nana bought us this latch-hook kit for thucquyen and i so she got started on that immediately. i was preoccupied by this book i was reading(paper towns by john green go read it it’s a masterpiece). the bed tq and i slept on proved to be bigger than i remembered so that was a huge bonus. we went fishing the next day and i caught a tiny sunfish. then pappy beheaded it and threw its body back into the lake. i dunno why he did that but okay. we watched the greatest showman that night and ate popcorn. we had a lot of different food actually; oreos, sandwiches, cupcakes(for nana’s birthday), hot dogs, jello, and other white people food. when we drove back to nana’s house, we stayed for one night before they drove us back to grandma’as house and mom came to pick us up about half an hour later.

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Yesterday I sat around doing nothing until we had to get ready for church. Before church we made two stops at Hobby Lobby and Big 5 for canvases and new rackets. Then we went to go pick up ThucDan and went to church. After church ThucDan went to some party and we went grocery shopping. I bought chips. And then mom ThucQuyen and I watched Forrest Gump.

Hôm qua con đi học. Con coi volleyball game ở trong lớp nhảy của con. Rồi xong con đi lớp guitar. Con choi guitar xong thì con đi ăn chưa. RỒi xong con đi lớp biology. Rồi xong con đi lớp geometry. Rồi xong mẹ đón con.

Hôm qua nhà con đi nhà thờ. Sau khi đó thì mình đi chợ. Con mua ramen và TD mua rau. Mình đi về ăn pasta rồi xong coi phim. Hôm nay con sẽ đi qua nhà chị Tí. Mẹ đang làm nui bây giờ. Con muốn đi chợ mua quần áo nhưng mà con biết mẹ sẽ ghét đồ con chọn. Mấy ngày nay con buồn tại vì con chẳng có đi đâu với bạn con.